September 7, 2009

On the February 19, 2003 edition of MSNBC’s “The Abrams Report,” guest commenter Van Jones stunned the other guests when he praised as “heroes” the traitors who were traveling from the U.S. to Iraq for the purpose of acting as “human shields” for Saddam Hussein. (See below for transcript.)

MSNBC is confirmed to have tapes of all episodes of “The Abrams Report” in its archives, but has thus far refused to publicly release a video of Van Jones’ appearance. Although this story is extremely newsworthy considering the controversy surrounding Van Jones over the last week, the only documentation available to the public about Jones’ praise for traitors are transcripts of the show available on Lexis-Nexis and similar databases.

Here is a transcript of the interchange between Van Jones and the show’s host Dan Abrams:

“DAN ABRAMS: If Saddam Hussein uses human shields and he’s captured alive, he’s going to be tried as a war criminal, as will anyone who works with him in that effort. The question we’re asking here is, what about these Americans, these Europeans who are sending over these American and European human shields?VAN JONES: They’re heroes.
DAN ABRAMS: Could that — well, all right.VAN JONES: They’re not criminals, they’re heroes.
DAN ABRAMS: All right, Van, before I even get to the intro, Van Jones is jumping in, describing them as heroes. But Ruth Wedgewood, look, apart from the fact that almost everyone doesn’t view them as heroes at all, and everyone in this country particular views the idea of them getting into soldiers’ ways — soldiers’ way in Iraq is extremely disturbing to say the least.”

Why is MSNBC protecting Van Jones and as a result damaging its own journalistic integrity?

If you want MSNBC to release a video of Van Jones’ shocking admission (either by re-broadcasting it on air, or featuring it on its Web site or YouTube channel), sign this petition or send an email to any or all of these addresses demanding the release of the video:

(I can’t guarantee that any of these will get you a reply; MSNBC is notoriously unresponsive.)

Here is a screenshot of the Lexis-Nexis transcript for the show, showing the crucial portion with Van Jones defending the human shields:

(Lexis-Nexis is a comprehensive online news database which can only be accessed by those who have a paid subscription [which is why there’s no way to give a direct link to the show transcript here]. Although very few people can afford a private subscription themselves, Lexis-Nexis can be accessed at most public libraries and by many people through their companies’ corporate subscriptions. Any readers who harbor doubts about this transcript are encouraged to look it up themselves as verification.)

It’s important that MSNBC release the actual video of this show because many Americans will simply not believe that Jones praises traitors until they hear with their own ears him saying it. Even though the transcript is reliable, and even though anyone could confirm that the screenshot above is real by viewing it on Lexis-Nexis themselves, the issue will not impact a mainstream audience until the video itself surfaces as the final proof. Which is almost certainly the reason why MSNBC refuses to release it, since the network is well-known to have a pro-Obama bias and does not want to do anything which could damage the administration in the slightest—even something as minor as this.

Even though Van Jones has already resigned his position as “Green Jobs Czar” to the Obama administration, he is still trying to retroactively maintain his credibility and claim the moral high ground by insisting that he was hounded out of office unfairly, while his supporters are also claiming that he was the victim of a baseless smear campaign. Americans should know that the furor over Jones’ radical views has a solid grounding in fact, and is not simply a pack of distortions made up by his political opponents. Help push this “Abrams Report” revelation onto the front pages by: